


and the spaces between words (they were never mine to say)

by kameo_chan



Series: 30 day dark fandom challenge [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 13:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kameo_chan/pseuds/kameo_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt 15 - Last kiss/Last time your OTP has sex.</p><p>Space AU - Kagami doesn't know how to tell Kuroko he won't be coming back from this mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and the spaces between words (they were never mine to say)

“I’m shipping out tomorrow,” Kagami says to the darkness of their cabin. “Ceres Alpha. Command reckons it’s time to bring in the big guns.” Kuroko, who’d been drifting off, tenses minutely beside him; the fingers of his right hand digging into the solid muscle of Kagami’s chest. 

“How long?” Kuroko asks, and Kagami’s throat goes dry and tight. 

“They don’t know,” he answers, and it’s not a lie, not really. He’ll keep telling himself that until Kuroko believes him – until he believes himself. Suicide missions have an indefinite window period, after all. It’s not like Base Command hadn’t weighed the risks before they’d decided to deploy their best (and last) hope to the frontlines. 

Kuroko is quiet beside him for longer than Kagami feels comfortable with, until finally, he presses closer and draws Kagami in by the nape of his neck. Kuroko kisses like a man starved – it’s hot and breathless and perfect, and Kagami hates knowing that by oh four hundred tomorrow, he’ll never be kissed like this ever again. It’s like the first three seconds of freefall on his first drop all over again, that same feeling of weightless terror as the world opens up beneath you in a gaping plunge.

When they finally break apart, Kuroko presses his forehead to Kagami’s and whispers just to the left of his jaw, “Tell me you’ll come back.” 

“I will,” Kagami says. 

_It’s not a lie_ , he prays. _Please don’t let it be a lie._

He’s made it before; he’ll make it again. After all, his platoon had done a hundred off-world drops before, and they’d survived every time. Not always whole and never unscathed, but there was nothing short of death that the Base surgeons and the nano-tech couldn’t heal. He’d be fine.

But it’s difficult to convince yourself that you can beat the odds when the frontier’s gone dark and all the C.Os do anymore is whisper where they think the platoon and squad leaders can’t hear them. Three fleets missing and no one says a word; not about the broken planet-side transmissions, not about the distress signals still broadcasting from way stations gone silent. 

“I will,” Kagami promises again, another not-lie, and Kuroko nods like it’s the truth before he lets go, turns on his side and whispers, “Good night.” 

Kagami doesn’t have the heart to correct him; to reach out and tell him it’s actually, “Goodbye.”

**Author's Note:**

> First installment of the 30 days dark fandom challenge, by aliceinasgard. Obviously, KagaKuro will be the OTP of choice for this project.


End file.
